The Home Front

It’s been an incredibly busy week or two—mainly from changes in and around the house, and preparations for our vacation trip next week. One thing that generated a lot of work was the purchase, second hand, of a huge, glass-fronted bookcase/cabinet for our dining room. It’s a little beat-up, but a very nice, solidly made old piece of furniture. It’s way too big to come up the front stairs (we live on the second and third floor of a 2-family), so it had to be winched up over the second floor porch. The quotes from movers were astronomical, so we bought a block-and-tackle set, and with much muddling around, managed to put a beam up to attach the pulleys to, and hoisted the thing and got it into the house. (Have you ever tried to keep the lines from tangling on a 7X mechanical advantage block-and-tackle? Ai caramba.) Then we started trying to fit in everything that had been on the previous shelves, including the stereo components. Ho ho ho. Here’s what it looks like, complete with the Viper pilot’s helmet (more on that later):

That was just a warm-up for getting the camping trailer ready for our trip to Ohio. The trailer’s been in the garage for about 5 years, unused. (It’s over 35 years old, a hand-me-down from my aunt and uncle, still quite handy, but getting a little long in the tooth in certain areas.) It took me three days to get the taillights working, and that was just the starting point. But we’re getting close to departure now.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, a neighbor put a Honda moped up for sale, and my wife fell in love with it. (I sort of did, too, after I rode it.) So we bought it, mostly for her to commute to work on (90 MPG or so), and I get to ride it for mental health spins after she gets home. Thus, the Viper pilot’s helmet. It’s fun! (Not as good as flying, but still.) We’ve had a lot of debate over what to name it, but Dragonbreath seems to be winning the day.

This entry is already too long, so I’m going to skip over the part about our argument with a neighbor over a 2-second dog fight, and the part about my daughter’s truncated trip to Puerto Rico, and the battle of the migraines.

“I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top.” —Anonymous English Professor, Ohio University